
Author 



Title 



Imprint 



16—47372-2 




Ti 



UPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 



A 



LECTURE 



heliverilD befor?: the 




ERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTIOIN 



T' At Concord, Neav HAMPsnipa-:, August 26, 1^63, 



BY 




REV. BIRDSEY GRANT NORTHROP, 

AGENT MASS. BOARD OF EDUCATION. 



ALSO DELIVERED BEFORE 



AMPDEN COIJNTT TBACHEES' ASSOCIATION. AT SPRINGFIELD, 
ASS.. AND IN THE- SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, BEFORE 
THE TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OP EDUCA- 
TION, IN WASHINGTON, D. C. 




BOSTON: 

18 6 4. 



SUPMEVISION OF SOHOOLS. 



LECTURE 

« DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION, 

At Concord, New Hampshire, August 26, 1863, 

BY 

f^y'' REV. BIRDSEY GRANT NORTHROP, 

AGENX MASS. BOARD OF EDUCATION. 
ALSO DELITEBED BEFORE 



THE HAMPDEN COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, AT SPRINGFIBLDj 
MASS., AND IN THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, BEFORE 
THE TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF EDUCA- 
TION, IN WASHINGTON, D. C. 



•w 



syry^W 



BOSTON: 
TICKN-QI^ .A.3Srr> FIELDS 

18 6 4. 






'^J 



1 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS/ 



The schools in our towns and cities differ in 
nothing more than in the skill, thoroughness, and 
efficency of their supervision. This one agency is 
the most common cause of other differences. The 
schools themselves tell the practised observer the 
style of this supervision, as readily as a house does 
that of an architect. My observations in visiting 
thousands of schools throughout Massachusetts, and 
many in twelve other States, have clearly proved to 
my mind the wisdom of maintaining a Superintendent 
in all our cities and large towns, who shall devote 
his whole time to the care and improvement of the 
schools. 

The magnitude of the interests involved, pecuniary, 
physical, intellectual and moral, the great advance 
recently made in the science and art of teaching, the 
glaring defects still existing even in our cities, the 
improvements needed and the happy results already 
accomplished by this agency where it has had a fair 

* Delivered also before the Hampden County Teachers' Association in 
Springfield, in October, 1863, and at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash- 
ington," D. C, in February, 1864. 



4 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

trial, all prove the importance of establishing this 
office. 

Its duties are difficult as well as important. A 
failure will surely come from clumsy hands. Espe- 
cially in the initiation of this system, great care 
should be taken in the selection of the incumbent. 
A mistake here has more than once spoiled the ex- 
periment, if not marred the schools. Compara- 
tively few men are qualified to meet the varied and 
delicate demands of this most responsible post. 

In addition to liberal culture and practical famili- 
arity with all the school studies high and low, he 
must have sound judgment, or in stronger Saxon 
phrase, common sense, a knowledge of human nature 
and of the laws of mind, and most of all, of the 
juvenile mind, with the conditions and processes of 
mental growth, love of children, and tact and facility 
in addressing and controlling them. He should be 
able to bring to this service the skill and ample re- 
sources drawn from a successful experience in the 
schoolroom. The science and art of teaching, the 
true succession of studies, the order in which the 
juvenile faculties are to be addressed and developed, 
the philosophy of motive, in a word the broad sub- 
ject of Education, physical, mental, and spiritual, is 
to be carefully investigated. He must be so accurate 
an observer of the various methods and their several 
results that he can infer the one from the other, and 
' thus not only discover existing errors and defects, 
but at once suggest the means of removing them. 



SUPEEVISION OF SCHOOLS. 5 

In the best schools, where others observe only 
excellences, his practised eye must discover the less 
obvious deficiencies still remaining and the appro- 
priate remedies. He should make himself familiar 
with the most successful schools in the land and 
keep pace with the general progress of Education. 
The object-schools at Oswego, the training system 
of Toronto, the Normal schools of different States, 
and the model schools in some instances connected 
with them ; the ingenious and yet philosophic 
methods for waking the dormant minds of imbeciles, 
adopted in the Institutions at Syracuse, Barre, or 
Boston ; the conversations by Pantomime and the 
new system of spelling and talking solely by the 
emotions, as expressed in the countenance of mutes ; 
the processes for training the senses just initiated in 
New York city ; the practice of simultaneous dehne- 
ation and description, both linear and verbal, as at 
Westfield ; the map drawing from memory in the 
Phillips ; the gymnics of the Eliot ; the geography of 
the Hancock, in Boston, with her Model School 
Palaces ; the unrivalled spelling of Providence ; the 
exhaustive scrutiny of a sentence from Virgil or 
Homer by Dr. Taylor at Andover ; the admirable in- 
fantry tactics of the seventy boys, ** the Brookline 
Rifles," and the unequalled drills of the Cadets at 
West Point, not more as cavalry, infantry, flying 
artillery, or in heavy ordnance and mortar practice, 
than in the higher and harder field of pure mathe- 
matics, rapid sketching, and the mechanics of engi- 
1* 



6 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS, 

neering, any or all these, and other schools eminent 
in some practical specialty will be fruitful in sug- 
gestions to a Superintendent. 

Thus, as he takes a comprehensive view of the 
system practised at home, he can compare it with 
others of the highest standino; which he has exam- 
ined abroad. Surely this work is important enough 
to enlist all the energies of the ablest mind. The 
most exalted talents, enriched by all the treasures of 
learning and science can here find ample employ- 
ment for all their resources. Its great and respon- 
sible duties should become the sole and all-absorbing 
business of the incumbent who is worthy to magnify 
the office. 

A consideration of the duties of a Superintendent 
in detail, will serve to show the importance of the 
office. 

I. A Superintendent has peculiar facilities to ad- 
vance public sentiment and awaken popular interest 
in behalf of education. The character of the schools 
in each town and city answers to local public opinion. 
You elevate public sentiment by improving the 
schools, no more surely than you improve the schools 
by elevating public opinion. They reciprocally in- 
fluence each other. Popular ignorance, or indiffer- 
ence even, will cripple the best educational system. 
Improvements In our schools cannot keep very far in 
advance of public opinion. While advocating pro- 
gress, I still admire that conservative element of the 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 7 

New England character, which closely scrutinizes 
and cautiously welcomes innovations upon established 
usages. If our people are slow to move, they move 
strong and in earnest when once roused and resolved. 
The progress thus secured is more permanent and 
substantial than the rapid advancement sometimes 
prompted by an undue thirst for novelties. Once 
convince such men, that education is the great in- 
terest for which *' every one's hearthstone cries out 
in his ears," and you soon find an active interest 
where you feared a settled apathy, and a growing 
liberality in the room of seeming indifference. This 
fearful war has laid the foundation for greater pro- 
gress in our schools. Had the people been educated, 
the secession ordinance could hardly have been car- 
ried in a single Southern State. The plots of in- 
triguing leaders and the ultimate oppression of the 
people would surely have been understood. 

Traitors North or South, and those who are plot- 
ting treason always hate free schools. . Just twenty 
years ago Governor Hammond of South Carolina said 
in his message, " The free-school system has failed. 
Its failure is owing to the fact that it does not suit 
our people, .our government, and our institutions. 
The paupers, for whose children it is intended, need 
them at home to work." 

Mr. Robinson, the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction in Kentucky, clearly proves that ignorance 
was the tool of Southern conspirators, and produces 
statistics to " show that the counties in Kentucky, in 



8 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

which common schools have been most largely estab- 
lished and most liberally sustained, are those which 
have been most distinguished for a cordial, immov- 
able, and self-sacrificing attachment to the Union." 
The Rebellion was made possible only by the absence 
of Free Schools, and the consequent ignorance of the 
masses, which made them the easy dupes of corrupt 
and designing men. The absorbing excitements and 
demands incident to our protracted struggle for na- 
tional existence, instead T)f interrupting or embarass- 
ing our schools as was feared by many, and I am 
sorry to add, as was predicted and desired even by 
some Northern traitors, have manifestly strengthened 
the popular appreciation of education as the primal 
source of our prosperity^ power, and success, alike in 
peace and war. 

If I may be allowed to speak from my own obser- 
vation and experience during the last year, in giving 
more than two hundred lectures, and travelling over 
twelve thousand miles, thus mingling freely with all 
classes of the people, never before have I received 
more encouragement and cordial cooperation from 
teachers and committees, or stronger proofs of pop- 
ular interest and sympathy in* my efforts to advance 
the great cause of public instruction. This war itself 
has been a great school for the nation. It has won- 
derfully educated the public mind. Events which 
stir the soul always educate. Great political crises 
rouse the latent powers of men, and therefore elicit 
great talents. Then multitudes start from the leth- 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 9 

argy of a mere physical existence and display powers 
of mind of which they themselves were unconscious. 
The first French revolution had this effect upon mul- 
titudes in England and in this country. Still more 
the achievement of our National independence stimu- 
lated the whole American mind. Never did Patrick 
Henry speak with such overwhelming eloquence as 
upon that momentous question, war or chains. Never 
before had Jefferson displayed such wisdom, as when 
he penned the Declaration of Independence. Thanks 
to Heaven, as one of the lessons of this war, the na- 
tion is now learning that its so called glittering gen- 
eralities are cardinal Christian truths. 

In this greatest crisis in the history of our country, 
the summons of patriotism has suddenly aroused the 
dormant energies of multitudes at the North, and is 
to-day exerting a great intellectual and moral in- 
fluence upon all those who have souls to appreliend 
the magnitude and importance of the conflict. These 
events have educated men ; they have fired and in- 
spired them ; they have called forth from obscurity 
and repose, a cluster of heroes and statesmen who 
are an honor to the country, to the age, and the 
world. The simple reason is, their whole heart is in 
the service, and therefore the effort to uphold justice 
and liberty, to sustain that noble government which 
is the hope of the toiling and oppressed millions of 
the world, has enlisted all the faculties of their minds. 
This war is training multitudes to rival the noble 
heroism of our revolutionary Fathers. We are learn- 



10 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

ing that pusillanimity is not only a weakness, but a 
sin, and that labor, hardship, privation, even invig- 
orate alike the body and the mind. Courage, en- 
durance, and heroism, are virtues which have hitherto 
been too little inculcated and still less practised. 
The best characters ever formed on earth came up 
through great tribulation, and he is powerless for the 
real conflicts of life who cannot endure hardness as a 
good soldier, or at least who is not trained to self- 
denial, labor, and perseverance. ^ 

There never has been a day in the whole history 
of our country when the friends of education could 
work so hopefully as at this time. There is a gen- 
eral awakening of mind. It is thoroughly aroused 
from the sloth and slumber of the past, quivering 
with new impulses and thrilling with excitement. 
It is a period of unparalleled activity, when, rising 
above the fearful din of war, we may hear a thousand 
jubilant sounds that are ushering in the morn of 
knowledge and liberty. In these times, better than 
ever before, may an efficient Superintendent of 
Schools hope to elevate public sentiment in behalf 
of learning, by direct personal influence with indi- 
viduals, by public addresses, or with his pen through 
the daily journals, and in his Annual Report. In 
these various ways he can do much to enlist the 
sympathies and cooperation of parents and the pub- 
lic at large in favor of wise improvements in 
schools. 



SUPEKVISION OF SCHOOLS. * 11 

II. Much of a Superintendent's work relates 
directly to the School Committee. Although their 
permanency has been increased in some States by 
legislative enactment, the School Board still changes 
too frequently. It requires one or two years to ini- 
tiate new men in the details of their work. It is 
no slight matter suitably to review the common school 
studies, and to discover the practical working of the 
whole system, based on a knowledge of the special 
characteristics of each school in the town or city, 
and the comparative progress of all ; the excellences 
and defects of individual teachers with their respec- 
tive theories and methods. 

The faithful performance of this work is frequently 
too burdensome for men engaged in the active pur- 
suits of life, or for those who are wholly absorbed 
in their profession, with no practical knowledge of 
didactics, who have never investigated the theory 
and art of teaching or even regarded education as a 
science. The office is perhaps accepted with reluc- 
tance, and in concession to the persuasions of friends, 
and its duties always held subordinate to the calls 
of their chosen and regular vocation. The reports 
of committees often assign the pressure of profes- 
sional or private engagements as their excuse for the 
acknowledged neglect of this duty. A single sen- 
tence will illustrate the spirit of many. Says one 
of these reports : "A vast amount of necessary 
work must be done by somebody, the whole of which 
never has been and never can be done by the mem- 



12 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

bers of this Board without sacrifices and exertions 
too great for the public to demand." 

Now a Superintendent , familiar with every teacher 
and school, and knowing something of every class, 
and also the accommodations and adaptations of each 
school building and room, the repairs and changes 
needed for ventilation and "heating, the demand for 
school apparatus, furniture, or reference books, can 
supply to this changing Board the facts and sugges- 
tions necessary to aid their deliberations and decisions. 
In this way the influence of the Board itself is in- 
creased, and their plans are characterized by more 
unity, efficiency, and permanence. 

It is a well-known fact that the success of the 
great manufacturing corporations to which a large 
share of the prosperity of New England is due, is 
owing to the system of thorough and skilful super- 
vision which pervades the whole. Although every 
operative knows well his place and duty,- yet an over- 
seer stands like the teacher in every room to see that 
each subordinate does his work faithfully and welt, 
and over all alike the overseer and the hands is the 
Superintendent, as it should be in our schools, upon 
whose executive ability and skill the success of the 
whole concern largely depends. To command the 
highest business talent in these important posts, very 
liberal salaries are given. The owners would deem 
it poor economy to savfe this salary by dividing these 
duties among a Board of seven, nine, or twelve 
Directors, to be performed at random, as their in- 



SUPERTISION OF SCHOOLS. IB 

clinations or dther engagements might permit. Such 
services would be dear even if gratuitous, and dearer 
still when the several charges equal if not surpass 
the salary of a Superintendent. How long would 
the bills of any bank pass current if the duties of 
cashier and president were equally distributed among 
twelve directors ? The experience of bankers, man- 
ufacturers, insurance companies, and all large joint 
stock corporations, long since demonstrated the wis- 
dom of devolving the chief oversight upon one head. 
A division of responsibilities among a large number 
of trustees usually diminishes their efficiency very 
much in proportion to the number. If each has a 
less share of work, so also of the honor of success or 
the blame of neglect and failure. Hence in all com- 
mittees, societies, and associations, commercial, finan- 
cial, mercantile, or manufacturing, literary, religious, 
or benevolent, one man is usually held responsible 
for the work and results. 

What other great expenditure of money is so little 
economized by personal supervision as that of schools. 
In some instances within my knowledge the appoint- 
ment of a Superintendent has secured an evident and 
admitted saving of money, by an improved system of 
school expenditures, to an extent exceeding the sal- 
ary paid that officer. So far as my observation 
extends, the general fact has been increased economy 
as well as efficiency in the whole school administra- 
tion. 

The strongest incentives will stimulate a man, 
2 



14 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

worthy of the place, to put forth his utmost endeavors 
for the improvement of the schools. Not to speak 
here of the higher and more obvious motives to zeal 
and fidelity, the sacredness of the work, and its rare 
opportunities for usefulness, he knows that all eyes 
are fixed upon him, and that an intelligent public 
will scrutinize all parts of his work, because it con- 
cerns every household. He is to be held in some 
measure responsible for the condition of every school. 
His neglects or inefficiency cannot escape detection. 
His mistakes, like those of the commander of an army, 
will cause sorrow, if not draw censure, from many 
hearts and homes, needlessly made desolate. His 
reputation and position depend upon the manifest 
progress and success of the schools. 

HI. An important part of a Superintendent's 
work is with the teachers. He is officially their 
friend and confidential adviser, to whom they may 
freely state their trials and difficulties, their points 
of conscious weakness or strength, and from whom 
they may receive judicious and timely counsel. The 
Superintendent may also speak freely to the teachers 
of the errors and defects he has observed in them or 
their work, provided these unwelcome disclosures are 
presented in a truly kind and friendly spirit. The 
teacher, isolated and unvisited, often longs to see 
himself as others see him, and would gratefully ac- 
cept a suggestion alike of his mistakes and their 
remedies. One is unconscious of his habitual and 



SUPERVISION or SCHOOLS. 15 

offensive nervousness and excitability. Another 
never has dreamed that with all his noise and bois- 
terousness, he is always indistinct in articulation. 
In an effort to maintain calmness and equanimity, 
another does not know that he has needlessly sacri- 
ficed spirit and force. One perpetually theorizes 
and experiments with new processes, another always 
rides some old hobby, one is over lenient, while 
another may be too arbitrary and exacting. I do 
not mean that it is wise to check all idiosyncrasies, 
and to ask teachers of varying gifts and peculiarities 
to follow blindly any single example. 

While none should be a copyist, but each seek to 
be himself, yet, where individual traits crop out with 
offensive prominence, friendly suggestions may be 
of great value. The Superintendent's authority and 
responsibility will sanction something of the freedom 
of a parental supervision, if only softened and re- 
commended by as much of parental sympathy. 

Teachers need encouragement as well as criticism 
and counsel. When difficulties in the school dis- 
hearten ; when misrepresentations, or groundless 
opposition, or prejudice outside,- — originating in 
local jealousies, or some old neighborhood quarrels, 
— are emboldening insubordination, or fostering 
indifference in the schools, or withholding sympathy 
and support from without, how welcome then is the 
advice of a wise Superintendent. He may save an 
efficient teacher and benefit the school by convincing 



16 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

the community that these embarrassments originate 
among the parents and that the remedy is with them- 
selves. 

In difficult cases of discipline, also, his advice is 
often of great service. By anticipating and fore- 
stalling evil, he may often show how much better is 
prevention than cure. For the benefit of teachers, a 
Superintendent may do much by quarterly, monthly, 
or more frequent meetings, where are discussed the 
topics suggested by his own recent observations, 
the experience of individual teachers, or the exigen- 
cies of particular schools. In such practical and 
home questions, all feel a deep personal interest. 

The utmost freedom is invited on the part of the 
teachers in throwing out such hints and facts as 
their experience may suggest, recent difficulties and 
the expedients adopted to meet them, are described. 
The Superintendent closes by giving the results of 
his maturer views and wider observations. 

Sometimes a class of children is invited to be 
present with whom one of the teachers, or the Super- 
intendent, gives a model lesson, which after the class 
retires is freely criticised by all present. 

The mere mention of some of the topics discussed 
on these occasions will indicate the opportunity which 
they furnish to a Superintendent, to exert a needful 
influence upon the assembled teachers, and through 
them upon all their schools, — such as the classifica- 
tion and gradation of schools, the requisites of suc- 
cess and the causes of failure in teaching, the neces- 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 17 

sity of a studious preparation of lessons on the part 
of the TEACHER, improvements needed in primary 
schools, object-lessons, oral lessons, expedients to 
keep little children pleasantly and profitably occu- 
pied, the means of training the senses, the best 
method of teaching each school study, and common 
errors in the same, frequency and modes of physical 
training, how to conduct recitations, incentives to 
study, moral instruction, good manners, school gov- 
ernment, means of professional improvement to the 
teacher, the peculiar points and methods of the most 
successful schools in other cities. Having often par- 
ticipated in these meetings in Massachusetts, and 
somewhat in other States, I can speak from experi- 
ence, and can bear testimony to their interest and 
usefulness in awakening a generous rivalry and pro- 
fessional enthusiasm , and increasing the power and 
resources of teachers. At Oswego such a meeting 
is held two hours every school day by all the junior 
teachers, and for this purpose their school sessions are 
reduced to five hours a day. Three lessons a week 
are given on the theory or methods of teaching, and 
two lessons a week are given by these teachers in 
turn, with a class of children on subjects sometimes 
assigned them, oftener of their owh choice. The 
subject is carefully studied, a sketch indicating the 
points to be developed, is submitted in writing to 
the Superintendent, and the matter and manner of 
the lesson are freely criticised by the assembled 
teachers and Superintendent. 

2* 



18 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

IV. Tl^e chief field of a Superintendent's labors 
is with the schools themselves. All these he visits 
frequently, and his visits are more systematic and 
longer, and his questions to the several classes are 
more searching, than those of the school committee 
can well be. In our cities their visits are often too 
brief and irregular to discover fully the real charac- 
■ teristics of the teachers or the pupils. 

The frequent examinations of schools by a judici- 
ous educator is one of the surest methods of improv- 
ing the teacher and scholars, giving alike to both, di- 
rection, counsel, and encouragement. The prospect 
of frequent inspection by the Superintendent is a con- 
stant stimulus at once to the teacher and pupils. 
Teachers will make it their aim to secure a thorough 
comprehension of the lessons, rather than a mere 
repetition of words and formal propositions ; the 
scholars are led to study, not merely in order to say 
the lessons at a recitation a few minutes hence, but 
by reflection and reviews so thoroughly to master 
them, grsLSi^mg principles as well as processes, as to 
be ready at any moment, and without warning to 
meet the more rigid scrutiny of the Superintendent. 
The examinations, whether of classes or schools, are 
better tests of Scholarship and progress, when iin 
expert performs the duty, who has not only been a 
teacher, but as a school visitor has observed methods 
both of learning and teaching under widely different 
circumstances. 

Another advantage is a more intimate and reliable 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 19 

acquaintance with every school. After observing 
the excellences or deficencies in each, he can without 
offence, and as a part of his duty, delicately suggest 
wiser methods, and throw out hints fitted to meet the 
perceived exigencies of the occasion, or, still better, 
give the several classes model lessons, or drills in the 
studies they are pursuing. 

A Superintendent may accomplish great good by 
addressing schools. Not every speaker can interest 
or profit children. To be able to impress them is 
an art which requires tact, sensibility, sympathy 
with the juvenile mind, fertility and felicity of illus- 
tration, a keen eye to discover the exigency of the 
hour, and take advantage of passing events or exer- 
cises in the schoolroom. With what wrapt attention 
do children always listen to one who can happily 
adapt both the themes and thoughts to the character- 
istics here and now observed. Advice, encourageinent, 
or warning, manifestly suggested by the perceived 
wants of our school to-day, will be likely to impress 
the heart and influence the life. An eminent educator 
said to me : * ' A few words which I heard in my 
boyhood from Horace Mann changed the history of 
my life and first inspired me with a desire and deter- 
mination to secure a liberal education." Similar 
traces of the personal influence of that great educator, 
I have often found in various parts of Massachusetts. 
Gratefully remembering the impulse given my own 
mind when a lad of ten years in the district school, 
by a brief address to the school, and still more by a 



20 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

few words of personal encouragement from our then 
pastor and school visitor, Rev. Dr. Hickok, I have 
tried for years to pay that debt of gratitude, not 
indeed to the honored President of Union CoUeo-e, 
but to every child whom I could reasonably reach in 
public or private, in the schools and the streets, the 
stage-coach and steam-boat and rail-car. Nearly 
twelve years ago I solemnly resolved, in my humble 
sphere and according to my ability, to make the 
noble sentiment of Dinter (who revolutionized the 
schools of Prussia) my motto. Said Dinter: *'I 
promised God that I would look upon every Prussian 
child, as a being who could complain of me before 
Him, if I did not use my utmost endeavors to pro- 
vide for him the best education as a man and as a 
Christian, which it was possible for me to provide." 
The desire and hope of accomplishing some valuable 
results, and leaving an impress upon the plastic mind 
of childhood, have been a constant impulse and in- 
spiration in labors which have been neither few nor 
light. 

Permit me to mention one of many similar facts 
in my experience illustrating the susceptibility of 
youth to good impressions and the encouragement 
to effort in that direction. A student whom I did 
not at first recognize said to me, ** When you were 
visiting our town four years ago, your talk with me 
after school on the doorsteps, turned the scales and 
led me to seek a collegiate education ; I owe it to 
those words of encouragement that I am now a mem- 
ber of college." 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 21 

If teachers, committees, and superintendents will 
put themselves on the stand-pojnt of children, so 
as to appreciate their tendencies, wants, and' even 
weaknesses, much good may be done, not only in 
public addresses, but by personal conversation with 
them as to their plays, habits, plans, studies, and 
dangers. The most wayward child I have met in 
our schools has kindly received friendly counsel and 
faithful warning, even as to his errors and offences. 
Though unaccustomed to kindness, such boys are 
not insensible to its influence. The tones of sym- 
pathy may touch a chord that will vibrate the more 
sweetly because of its very strangeness. 

Who can estimate the extent and value of the 
healthful moral and mental impulses and impressions 
given to youth by a Superintendent who is skilful in 
addressing them, and who is wholly and heartily 
devoted to their improvement. 

But you will ask what is the testimony of expe- 
rience on this subject ? 

Superintendents are more generally employed in 
the middle and western States than in New England. 
They are supported in twenty of the chief cities and 
large towns of New York; in Ohio, in Cincinnati, 
Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland, Sandusky, 
Zanesville, and, says a correspondent, in most of 
the cities of the State ; at least in ten or more 
towns and cities of Massachusetts ; in five in New 
Jersey ; in many large towns of Illinois ; three in 
Rhode Island ; several in Michigan and Wisconsin ; 



22 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

two at least in New Hampshire ; several in Iowa, 
Indiana, Tennessee.,* Missouri. In the State of New 
York" School Commissioners are by law appointed, 
one in each assembly district, who are virtually Super- 
intendents, being required to examine and approve 
all the teachers employed, and visit all the schools 
within their districts. Where the Commissioners are 
competent and faithful, this skilful supervision of 
schools and rigid examination of teachers elevate the 
standard of their qualifications and improve the schools. 
As an indication of the growing rigor of these exam- 
inations, I found on a late visit to Washington County, 
which, with a population of forty-four thousand, em- 
ploys two Commissioners, more than one hundred 
and fifty candidates failed last autumn to get a license 
to teach by reason of deficiencies in their attain- 
ments. 

The results which have come under my observation 
confirm the arguments already presented. No one 
conversant with the past and present condition of the 
schools where both systems have been fairly tried can 
in my judgment question the utility, not to say the 
necessity of the oflfice. The School Board of New 
Bedford after a trial of two years, use only the com- 
mon language of such reports, when they say that 
*' the oflfice of Superintendent is essential to the 
highest efficiency and welfare of our schools." Yery 
great progress has been made in Boston within the 
last six years, especially in the gradation, classifica- 
tion, and processes of instruction introduced into the 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 23 

Primary Schools by their skilful, pr^^ctical, and efficient 
Superintendent. 

A wide contrast may be seen between the Pri- 
mary Schools in Boston and those in one or more 
of the contiguous cities. The superiority of the for- 
mer, too manifest to be questioned, is mainly due to the 
persevering and well-directed efforts of the Super- 
intendent. The same agency has greatly improved 
the schools of Providence. The country is under 
obligations to their Superintendent for the demon- 
strations given in some of the schools of that city, 
of the possibility, and still more the practicability and 
wisdom of essentially completing spelling under ten 
years of age. The Superintendent of Chicago has 
revolutionized the schools of that city. His Seventh 
Annual Report, or *' Graded Schools," is already a 
standard manual with progressive teachers. Five 
years ago I found in Chicago the best system of school 
gymnastics which I had then anywhere witnessed. 
Now I should deem it a sign of great progress to 
find anywhere a system surpassing that practised in 
some of the schools of Boston. 

The Primary Schools of Oswego, New York, 
which but a few years ago, were in a low condition, 
through the skill and indefatigable exertions of their 
Superintendent have been raised to a degree of ex- 
cellence probably not surpassed, if equalled in the 
country. I visited all the schools of the city with a 
single exception, in order to observe the working of 
the system under a great variety of circumstances 



24 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

and with all classes of children, the rich and the 
poor, Germans, French, Irish, and Scotch, as well 
as Americans. While I dissent from some views 
and methods there adopted, the system as a whole 
is in my judgment practical and philosophical, and 
in the hands of competent teachers, admirably adapted 
to young children. 

Lowell is the only city within my knowledge which 
has suspended the office, after making a trial even 
for a single year. The Report of their School Com- 
mittee indicates that the experiment was made in that 
city under most unfavorable circumstances, *' creating 
in many minds a prejudice against the office." The 
question of establishing such an office was * * a con- 
stant theme of confusion and contention with little 
progress towards a final solution for the five years ' 
previous to the appointment of a Superintendent, 
* ' with interminable disputes " and ' * a feeling of in- 
tense hostility and bitterness." * 

Notwithstanding these unfortunate differences the 
School Report for 1860 speaks of the '* practical 
operation of the office as in the highest degree val- 
uable as promotive of economy, efficiency, and uni- 
formity in the management of the great interests 
committed to this Board. By frequently visiting 
all the schools, instituting comparisons between them 
and engrafting upon the deficiencies of the poorer 
schools, the excellences of those which are superior, 

* Since this Lecture was delivered, the City of Lowell has re-established 
the office of Superintendent of Schools. 



SUPEEVISION OF SCHOOLS. 25 

by holding frequent converse with the teachers, sug- 
gesting improvements to the inexperienced, stimu- 
lating the ardor of the flagging, and enabling all to 
avoid the defects and adapt the excellences of each, 
the Superintendent has done much and may do more 
to secure efficiency and uniformity in the prevailing 
methods of instruction and discipline. By exercising 
a watchful scrutiny into all the matters involving the 
expenditure of money, he has enabled this Board to 
reduce the incidental expenses of the school by more 
than twice the amount of his whole salary. Our 
opinion, therefore, is that if the City Council would 
insure the greatest prosperity, efficiency, and uni- 
formity, in the management, discipline, and instruc- 
tion of our schools, it ought not to abolish the office 
of Superintendent." 

The School Committee of Beverly say on this 
subject : * — ■ 

* * The true policy of school supervision involves 
the appointment of some competent person as Super- 
intendent, who shall devote himself exclusively to 
the careful oversight of all the schools, and give to 
each the frequent visits and the close inspection of 
which they are often deprived under the present 
arrangement. It must be evident to every mind 
tfiat one man possessing requisite qualifications, 
whose whole and only business is to look after the 
interests of the schools, can do the work required 

♦The testimony cited from Reports of School Committees was omitted 
in the delivery of the lecture. 
3 



26 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

far better than any number of men, whose various 
professions and occupations impose upon them all 
engrossing cares and duties, fully equal to the 
utmost exertion of their powers, and necessarily 
involving the inadequate performance of their duties 
as the responsible guardians of the most important 
interest that could be intrusted to them. A fair 
trial of the Superintendent system under favorable 
circumstances, would undoubtedly bring it into great 
favor." 

The School Committee of Marblehead advocate 
the same policy, among other considerations saying : 
'*In a large town like our own, where there are 
many schools demanding great care and attention, 
the choice of such an officer becomes a matter of 
imperative necessity." . 

The School Committee of Salem, after urging the 
importance of systematic, scrutinizing private visits 
to schools say : '* A competent School Superintendent 
who should make the studies, the discipline, the 
recreations, the care of the schools, both in general 
and in detail, his special work, is the only instru- 
mentality, perhaps, which can accomplish aU that 
we desire and need in a city as large as this. A 
proper salary for such an officer of instruction, we 
believe, would be a most truly economical and wile 
expenditure. He could find abundant occupation 
in so large a number of schools. He might do much 
to improve their character in every way ; to keep the 
faculties of the scholars upon the stretch, and to 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 27 

secure in all their departments that Zouave celerity 
of movement and perfection of drill which we occa- 
sionally witness, and which at once satisfies and 
delights." 

The School Board of Roxbury advocate the same 
measure, as will appear from the following extract : — 

' ' The efficiency of our school system and the unity 
of its working, would be very materially aided by a 
more special oversight of our schools than they now 
enjoy. No one member of this Board, — with the 
limited time he can devote to this service, however 
familiar he may be with the condition of individual 
schools, — can have more than a general knowledge 
of the eighty school divisions committed to our care ; 
many of which, particularly the Primary Schools, 
often have only a superficial examination, or are 
reported to this Board in such general terms as to 
give little definite idea of their condition. Some of , 
them are, .seldom visited; inexperienced teachers are often 
left to conduct their schools in almost entire ignorance of 
the systems of instruction pursued in the others, — systems, 
perhaps, as various as the schools are numerous ; 
and thus the pupils coming to our Grammar Schools 
are variously qualified. There is needed, therefore, 
some one so familiar with all our schools, as to know 
their individual condition ; who shall be able to con- 
trast and compare school with school ; who shall 
know, from month to month, the studies pursued 
and the work done in each ; who shall be able to 
point out defects where they exist, and to show their 



28 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

remedy, and be equally observant of the excellences 
anywhere manifest, in our own schools or elsewhere, 
and secure their imitation ; who shall be able to 
encourage the inexperienced teacher, and to give 
counsel as to the best mode of securing order, punc- 
tuality, cleanliness, and love of study; who shall be 
deeply interested in the schools he visits, and be 
able to interest and benefit them by suggestive re- 
marks and questions respecting their studies ; who 
shall be able to secure uniformity, to see that the 
Primary are aiming at some common standard of 
preparation for the Grammar Schools, and that some 
common standard of promotion is there observed ; 
and who can keep this Board constantly posted in 
respect to the condition of each school. Also, in 
looking after our school buildings and grounds, in 
providing by timely repairs against needless decay, 
in guarding against wasteful extravagance, and in 
the economical supply of the various wants of our 
schools, the time of a suitable person could be very 
advantageously employed, — there having been 
found elsewhere a great economy of expense in such 
supervision." 

The School Committee of Charlestown have re- 
peatedly presented memorials to the City Council, 
urging the passage of an ordinance authorizing the 
appointment of a Superintendent. 

The following extract from the Report of the 
School Committee of Pittsfield very fairly represents 
the views expressed by many others. 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 29 

**Your Committee believe that no business man 
in our community would employ annually seven 
thousand dollars in any practical pursuit, without 
personally superintending its employment, or secur- 
ing the services of some agent who would give his 
time and attention exclusively to the matter. And 
the community would regard a man who should so 
conduct his business as one whose name would soon 
be enrolled among the lists of insolvents. 

If this be ft,dmitted the true policy as to the indi- 
vidual, does it not apply with equal pertinence to the 
expenditures of the town for the support of schools ? 

We believe the true policy of the town is to em- 
ploy a single Superintendent, whose chief and prin- 
cipal business shall be to look after our schools. 

We have twenty-six schools in town, and to visit 
each one once a month, which the law requires, 
would occupy the entire time of one man, during the 
session of our schools. 

Such an individual, thus employed, would be thor- 
oughly acquainted with all the wants of each school, 
and could materially assist the teachers in their com- 
plex duties. 

He could mature and carry out a more perfect 
system of instruction, and would be more thoroughly 
identified with our schools, and could enforce a more 
rigid adherence to the better systems of instruction 
on the part of the teachers. 

We have no hesitation in recommending to the 
town the employment of a Superintendent whose 



30 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

duty it shall be to visit and direct the several schools 
in town, in the place of the present mode of visitation 
and examination. This would not necessarily in- 
volve very much, if any, additional expense. 

The Committee, as at present constituted, might 
be elected, who should have the control of the schools 
in all cases of difficulty or disagreement, and to whom 
the Superintendent should be required to report from 
month to month, and who should hold monthly meet- 
ings for that purpose, and who shouM render their 
services gratuitously." 

The School Committee of Concord bear strong tesif 
timony to the usefulness of that officer in that town. 

** Since the new organization of the Committee, 
three- years ago, the town has had the services of a 
Superintendent of Schools, whose zeal, ability, and 
devotion have proved his eminent fitness for the 
office. He has brought to his work extraordinary 
endowments and long experience, and he has doubled 
or trebled the labor required of him by the terms of 
his office. He has worked, too, not only for the 
town, but for the State and the world ; for his 
annual reports, widely circulated and received with 
appreciation, have done much to advance true ideas 
of education in other towns, and throughout the land. 
The town's liberality in publishing such reports has 
been well bestowed." 

The town of Gloucester which enjoys the honor of 
first establishing the office of a Superintendent in 
Massachusetts, discontinued it by vote of the town 



SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 31 

last year. The last Keport of their School Com- 
mittee expresses * * their profound regret at this action 
of the town." To the influence of this agency they 
attribute ** the present prosperous and progressive 
condition" of their schools, and express the convic- 
tion that to their tovrn the office ' ' is almost indis- 
pensable." 

*^We are unable to perceive, then, any means 
existing and available, the employment of which is 
better calculated to meet our wants, than the engage- 
ment of some suitable person, who, as Superintendent 
of our schools, shall devote his daily life, his best 
energies of thought and action, to their efficient su- 
pervision. The verdiet of eleven years' experience, and 
the general and statistical history of our schools, 
attest the wisdom of the measure. 

** The late action of the town, in declining to con- 
tinue the office of Superintendent, was urged upon 
the ground of economy, in view of the depressed con- 
dition of the times. But, if any weight is to be 
attached to the foregoing considerations, such action 
would, • as a measure of practical economy, prove 
eminently unsound ; while, at the same time, it se- 
cures only an apparent reduction in our expenditures. 
For, if the members of the School Committee faith- 
fully fulfil only the bare requirements of the law, in 
relation to the supervision of the schools, their ex- 
penses and legal remuneration would amount to a 
sum sufficient to secure the services of a Superin- 
tendent, at the usual compensation ; and it is believed, 



32 SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. 

that no merely economical considerations would ever 
satisfy the people for the disastrous results which 
would follow a failure to comply with such require- 
ments." 

The same measure is advocated in many other 
School Reports. I have considered this subject 
mainly in its application to cities and large towns. 
In the small towns, where the schools are compara- 
tively few, it is obviously practicable for the Com- 
mittee to keep up a faithful supervision and visitation 
of all the schools. But even in these towns it is 
becoming a somewhat comijaon practice for the School 
Committee, with the sanction of the town, to appoint 
one of their number a Superintendent, who shall 
perform ,the duties and receive the compensation 
usually divided among them. Such for example is 
the plan adopted in Longmeadow. The School Com- 
mittee in this town express the conviction after two 
years* trial, that the system promotes the increased 
prosperity of the schools, and recommend its con- 
tinuance. 



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